MAMMALIA 359 



tamed, but are annoying on account of their curiosity and the skill with 

 which they open doors with their hands. The fur is much used. The fam- 

 ily includes also the civet-cats of the Southwest, the kinkajou of the 

 tropics, and the South American coati. 



The bears ( Ur'sulce) are clumsy, omnivorous animals, with thick limbs 

 and naked-soled, plantigrade feet, bearing strong non-retractile claws. 

 The tail is short and the hair coarse. The "molar teeth are more adapted to 

 grinding than to cutting and the flesh teeth are massive and blunt." Some 

 species are especially fond of insects, such as day-flies, grubs, and termites. 

 The latter they obtain by digging into the nest and sucking them into the 

 mouth with inhalations strong enough to be heard two hundred yards away. 

 They are also fond of honey and fish. They live upon the ground, few spe- 

 cies being able to climb trees. The den may be in a hollow tree or in a cave 

 in a hillside, either natural or dug out by the mother. Two cubs, not larger 

 than rabbits, almost hairless, blind, and helpless, are born in mid-winter, 

 and the mother guards them solicitously. It takes seven years to reach 

 maturity. Bears rarely breed in captivity. The male bears wander 

 about singly, "the females are accompanied by their cubs, often as big as 

 themselves." 



Bears are naturally good tempered. The majority of the instances of 

 unprovoked attacks, says Hornaday, have been probably by mother bears 

 who fancied then- cubs in danger even those bears which ate up the chil- 

 dren in Elijah's day were "she-bears." 1 When a bear is aroused it is 

 exceedingly formidable. It deals killing blows with one of its paws, 

 having been known to kill a buffalo with one blow. It does not hug its 

 victims to death. The grizzly flees from man unless cornered. In cold, 

 snowy countries, where bears are unable to obtain food they pass the winter 

 in a sort of sleep, living upon then- fat stored up in the fall, but they do not 

 become torpid, as the cold-blooded animals do. In some species the males, 

 which hibernate singly, come out from time to time. They do not hibernate 

 in the tropics nor in captivity, leading us to believe that the winter sleep 

 of the north is only another adaptation to environment. 



According to Beddard, the polar bear hunts "by scent rather than sight 

 or hearing, both of which senses seem to be somewhat dull." All American 

 bears, except the polar bear, change their color, being darkest in late summer 

 and lightest in spring. There are a numbei of well-marked types of bears, 

 eight of which live in Asia and Europe, and four, the polar bear, the brown 

 bear, the grizzly, and the black, live in America. One group is found all 

 around the North Pole and another group in South America. The oil, fat, 

 and fur of bears are used. 



Not until the Pliocene in the Old World and later in the New did the true 

 bears ( Ursus) appear. So this family, which is highly specialized in some 

 features and very primitive in others, is among the youngest of the Car- 

 nivora. 



The fur-bearers (Mustel'idce) are blood-thirsty robbers, often killing 

 many times what they can consume, seemingly from a spirit of mere wan- 

 tonness. "The testimony of the rocks," says Ingersoll, "shows that this 

 family is either an ancient branch from the civet stock, or that it has sprung 

 from the same root." The genus Lutra is widely distributed. It includes 

 the otter. The front and hind feot are webbed, and the claws on the hind 

 feet flattened and nail-like. 



The North American otter is still occasionally found "in Florida, Carolina, 



1 II Kings ii, 24. 



